Fashion @ TAFE

Podcast coming @ Let's Talk!

Last Tuesday Marion & I went to Motion Fashion Parade by the students of Fashion Design & Technology , St George College of TAFE, Sydney Institute.

The photos you can see in the video are of some of the finalists at the Jeans for Genes design competition, which were on display at the fashion parade. I also took some photos of the hats and accessories.

Everything was professionally presented. The dresses were very beautiful and many of the them highly wearable, which is a bonus!

Have a look at the slideshow posted by the local paper, The Leader.

Films

Our new topic for the last three weeks is movies. One of the things we've been talking about is different kinds of movies, which is called genres. This wikipedia will give you many ideas about movie genres.

Movie interviews and reviews

One day in class we were talking about movies, film reviews, ratings, scores... watch this red-carpet interview with Keira Knightley talking about The Duchess. You can read as you watch and you can repeat sentences that you don't understand. (Thanks to Diana and Matt for pointing out this very good website!)

Just by chance I found another review of the same movie, this time in a craft blog! Instead of stars Melissa gives movies balls of wool (take note Elmira).

Time4English has a good selection of movies reviews. Go t Movie Reviews on the main page, choose one (preferably one that you have seen), read the review and do the exercises.

Use Audacity now to record a conversation with a classmate about that movie. Remember to make it an active listening practice for the person listening, as we practised in class with the Splendid Speaking worksheet on it, you can also listen to a model podcast by two students here: Active Listening.

When you have a spare moment, have a look at this great website, Twelve Canoes. Twelve Canoes is movie made and written in collaboration with Aboriginal people. Worth seeing (in the movies) or watching (at home on a DVD). The website gives visual information about many aspects of Aboriginal culture.

News

We are going to listen to another BTN episode this week.

Go to BTN. You have to watch episode 32.

Last week we heard about what it means to be the US presidentl. This week we can learn about Obama himself. There is also an item on ballroom dancing that some of you (especially Wendy) may find interesting.

Oral Presentations

Before I forget, I published Valeria, Lara and Orietta's podcasts in Let's Talk. Read the comments in Valeria & Lara's post. Sophie, one of our students from a couple of years ago, left a very nice comment.

Everyone in level 4 has to prepare an oral presentation.Some of you started learning how to use Power Point at the end of last term. Today we would like you to have time to start working on your presentation using power point. Marion and myself will help you if you need us to.

You will find Power Point in Programs, Microsoft Office.

Check out the presentation below to see a good example of a slideshow (probably power point!) and to get some very good ideas on what to do or not to do in your presentation.

How to make effective presentation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: presentations point)

This wiki has excellent hints on Finding Images for your presentation or blog.

If you are happy with your presentation, you can upload it onto slideshare and then you can embed it in your blog!

Check Splendid Speaking for great examples of oral presentations by advanced learners of English and teacher advice on their performance. These ones Signposting Your Talk and Structuring your Talk, are about how to use discourse markers to help the audience follow your talk structure. You can subscribe to it and receive the scripts, otherwise ask me for a print out of these two episodes.

There are some good websites to give you more ideas about signposting, structure, etc. This is one of them, English Speaking: Presentations in English.


I just found a great new concept for oral presentations, it's got a Japanese name Pecha Kucha (pe-chak-cha), which means chit-chat. The idea is that you only use 20 slides (which seems a lot!), but each slide is there only for 20 seconds. So that's a total of 6 minutes 40 seconds. This is a brilliant example that you can watch at home as it is on youtube (still banned at TAFE!).

Try it for your oral presentation, but using half the time: 10 slides X 20 seconds= 3 minutes 20 seconds. Perfect! Remember how exciting it was to get your entries for Sculpture of the Sea ABC photo competition down to 25 words. This would be a similar exercise in carefully planning your words. To achieve a good presentation you'll have to practise, practise and practise!

News

Read the article on your right to find out what to do this morning.

This is a better link to BTN. You have to watch episode 31.

College Counsellor

Have you listened to the podcasts about Sculpture by the Sea? Elmira, Sophie and Sue, Diana and Aneta talk about our excursion and their favourite sculptures. If you want to record your own podcast, you can start recording with Audacity. Ask Marion and Rosa to help you and show you how to edit your recording. When you are ready, call us to save it on a memory stick to publish it in Let's Talk.

The year is coming to an end very quickly. As usual for level 4 students, this means that you have to start thinking about what to do next year. On Thursday 13th November (in the downstairs Hogben Foyer between 12 noon and 1pm) we will have a Pathways session with teachers from different courses giving out information about those courses. We will be talking about it in class this week, so that you can understand the different possibilities better and prepare questions to ask about courses you may be interested in. This ESOL study pathways chart can help you, too.

Today I'd like you to listen to a podcast with the college counsellor, Luisa O'delli. Listen to her and do the work on the worksheet. You can publish a summary of her interview in your blog.


One of the sculptures in Sculpture by the Sea was the Ned Kelly mask lying on the shore (on your right). If you have time during the weekend or holidays, listen to this Bushranger Melange Podcast that an Australian high school teachers published for his students.